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A massive and illegal geoengineering project has been detected off Canada’s west coast

A private company backed by a controversial U.S. businessman has unilaterally conducted the world's most significant geoengineering project to date. Russ George, in conjunction with a First Nations village on Haida Gwaii, has dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean in a technique known as ocean fertilization. The experiment, which is in violation of two United Nations moratoria, has outraged environmental, legal, and civic groups.
The iron sulphate was dumped into the Pacific back in July, but recent satellite images are now confirming its effects — an artificial plankton bloom that's 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) in size. The intention of the project is for the plankton to absorb carbon dioxide and then sink to the bottom of the ocean. George is hoping to cash in on lucrative carbon credits.

Full size To make the project happen, George convinced the local council of an indigenous village to establish the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation. He told them that the project would restore salmon populations, leading the First Nations people to channel more than $1m of its own money into the project.

Critics say it is a "blatant violation" of United Nations rules, and the matter is currently under investigation by Environment Canada. Experts contend that the project violates the UN's convention on biological diversity (CBD) and London convention on the dumping of wastes at sea, which both prohibit for-profit ocean fertilisation activities. According to the Guardian, the news publication that broke the story, George claims that the two moratoria are a "mythology" and do not apply to his project. The Guardian reports:

George is the former chief executive of Planktos Inc, whose previous failed efforts to conduct large-scale commercial dumps near the Galapagos and Canary Islands led to his vessels being barred from ports by the Spanish and Ecuadorean governments. The US Environmental Protection Agency warned him that flying a US flag for his Galapagos project would violate US laws, and his activities are credited in part to the passing of international moratoria at the United Nations limiting ocean fertilisation experiments

Scientists are debating whether iron fertilisation can lock carbon into the deep ocean over the long term, and have raised concerns that it can irreparably harm ocean ecosystems, produce toxic tides and lifeless waters, and worsen ocean acidification and global warming.

"It is difficult if not impossible to detect and describe important effects that we know might occur months or years later," said John Cullen , an oceanographer at Dalhousie University. "Some possible effects, such as deep-water oxygen depletion and alteration of distant food webs, should rule out ocean manipulation. History is full of examples of ecological manipulations that backfired."

George says his team of unidentified scientists has been monitoring the results of the biggest ever geoengineering experiment with equipment loaned from US agencies like NASA and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. He told the Guardian that it is the "most substantial ocean restoration project in history," and has collected a "greater density and depth of scientific data than ever before".

"We've gathered data targeting all the possible fears that have been raised [about ocean fertilisation]," George said. "And the news is good news, all around, for the planet."

UN officials will be meeting in Hyderabad, India, later this week to discuss the issue, including possible upgrades to enforcement policies.

And as Silvia Ribeiro of the watchdog ETC Group has noted, "If rogue geoengineer Russ George really has misled this indigenous community, and dumped iron into their waters, we hope to see swift legal response to his behavior and strong action taken to the heights of the Canadian and US governments."

There's nothing wrong with you not giving a shit about gawker. You're entitle to that. But, I don't want to give them any more clicks.

As a writer, I've had my content lifted plenty of times... and as far as I know, it's legal as long as there's a link to the original given. And... in this case, if I scroll UP I can see a link to the original RIGHT AT THE TOP. So, I highly doubt that Gawker is going to give two shits about the text being copied into the comments section on a link to its article. It got the clicks...

What are you, a 15 year old law student? So... where are you on Gawker's publishing of the Hulk Hogan sex tape? That was illegally recorded, and illegally published.

What I did was request that someone copy and paste text from another article. This is done all the time on the internet. Have you ever read the Huffington Post? This is what they do all the time!

So, with a link to the original glaring at the top of the page, and everyone and their dog knowing how to click for the original (with images and everything) with the link at the top... there is no harm no foul.

But you're right. You pointed out that something is illegal. I'll bet you're also the first one to point out that a joint that someone is smoking at a party is illegal. Or, you point out that when someone is driving over the speed limit it's illegal too.

You claim that VA was posting pedophilic pictures online... but he wasn't. He was posting pictures that were in the public domain, that were fair use, of fully clothed females. Reddit got rid of those subs, and a dude's life was torn to shreds. I'm not defending him, but I am vehemently opposed to the actions of Adrien Chen.

So, yes, I'm civilly disobeying by asking someone to paste the text. Someone complied. You disagreed with this. I made no money off of this ordeal. I didn't take the text and pass it off as my own (cough, cough... Huffington Post).

S now what? Do the internet police come to my home for asking for something? Because, if they do, I'd like to redirect them to the owners of Gawker who posted illegally obtained naked images and video of Hulk Hogan without his permission for profit... unlike violentacrez who (despite being a huge asshat) didn't post illegally obtained naked photos online for profit.

Why am I bothering to argue with you? In your less than two decades of existence, I'm sure that you've got plenty of more insight on the legality of content on the web than I do. Please, tell us more...

If someone already had a window open they would easily be able to help any other boycotters out. There's no other way than to have one person copy for the others. But judging by the upvotes I've gotten for asking that favour, I believe I'm not alone on this. There are 33 upvotes as I write this, so perhaps we eliminated 32 clicks from their count just by asking that favour.

Jesus. The amount of vitriol slung at me for not wanting to click on io9 is hilarious... considering that the anger should be directed at the subjects in the link.

It's not like I'm the only one boycotting the Gawker empire.

All of a sudden /r/conspiracy has turned into a mouthpiece for RIAA-style rights disputes... when in reality, posting an io9 story here has helped the site get traffic. My goal was just to reduce that traffic by allowing those that are unhappy with Gawker the right to join in on the conversation. It would've been just as easy to post a link to a non-Gawker story, but why split the conversation into two?

Seriously. You'd think I kicked someone's dog just for asking for the text on here.

Just put on Adblock if it's so important to you. They spend bandwidth but don't serve the ads. Besides, this was totally pointless - you just caused someone else to load up the page and C&P it for you. Obviously io9 has content you want to read. So read it. It's not like they were involved.

No I'm not. I just find your mythology asinine. I could give two fucks about what some website posts and calls "news". I don't boycott what other sites because of what they do. Reason, the person that did what they did and got fucked for it should probably not have done what they did in the first place. If someone works in a school setting with underage girls and takes upskirt photos of them and uploads them to the internet, its no longer a matter of free speech so much as it is a matter of invasion of privacy. The person did something that was below them and shouldnt have done it. Don't do something or post something questionable online if you cant handle the consequences. In his case, posting photos of underage girls upskirts is questionable and most certainly deserves him losing his job for being a scumbag.

The Gawker stalker site is nothing special either, celebrities love spot light and being famous otherwise they wouldnt do what they do. If you don't like mobs of people following you then you shuoldnt have gotten into the business, you knew what you were getting into. As for a form of a way for paparazzi to know whos where, thats a slightly different story. But basically when you become famous your life is no longer private, your in the eye of the public. If you don't like/want that, don't join the business.

Either way, your boycotting the gawker group is childish. Grown up and focus on things that directly affect your life, not others.

Yeah he is entitled to do what he wants. I was simpy saying whats the points, hes acting like they are the only news company to do this. Yall can get as mad at me that you want, but the truth is it really does nothing, him boycotting them solves nothing. It doesnt show them anything and the person who got "in trouble" wasnt him and therefore shouldnt effect him on a personal level. The dude got ousted because hes a fuck, and this guy boycotts Gawker for calling the dude out. Stupid really, let the person who made the mistake take what he deserves, why is it of a concern to you or him?

Take what he deserves? Dude, the outting of violentacrez seriously jeopardized his wife's health, as he lost his job and in turn his health insurance.

It was a dick move.

I'm not only boycotting Gawker, I'm also boycotting shitty sources like the Daily Mail, FoxNews and Huffington Post. Again, makes no difference, and appears childish to you, but I don't care... I can find news items elsewhere that don't keep these assholes in business.

Seriously, do you work for these guys? Why the hell do you care what I do or not?

You clicked on the story and you got the information you sought. I didn't want to click, and now we're multiple responses into something that doesn't fucking matter. I don't want to click there. So what?

You're doing a little dance here to prove that you're right about something that I didn't ask your opinion on. I can happily boycott whoever the fuck I like... and right now, I'm boycotting all of the media from Gawker. Seriously, no skin off your back... unless you write for Gawker, and for that I would say, rethink your options, as there are much better sites to write for... and as a writer myself, I'll be happy to point you in the direction of those with a far higher amount of integrity.

Perhaps you should re-think your boycott, as it appears that these "evil blogs" do in fact present interesting and informative items...Don't be so quick to jump on the hivemind "blog=bad" rhetoric. While I don't agree with Gawker exposing Violentacrez, the site and it's network remain useful sources of current events.

Gawker doxxed a redditor for moderating a subreddit with questionable/yet-still-legal material, which caused him to lose his job, lose his health insurance (which was aiding his terminally ill wife), and get his ass kicked in his own home...

Meanwhile, Gawker has an 'upskirt' page, a Gawker Stalker page (which points out where celebrities are all the time), and published the Hulk Hogan sex tape even though it was recorded without his consent in a private setting...

So... fuck Gawker and all of its affiliates.

Surprised that nobody has heard about all this. There are numerous subs that are boycotting the Gawker empire right now.

Thanks for putting words in my mouth. For the record I started my boycott of television news years ago. But again, what's it to you that I don't want to give extra clicks io9? We've wasted more time on my position on Gawker's empire than on reading the article. Someone copied and pasted... End of fucking story. Move on.

That sucks for his wife, maybe he should have thought about that before being a creeper online and letting it get back to his real life so easily. Here's a tip, if you're going to be a morally reprehensible person online, don't go to Reddit meetups and tell people who you are.

Adrien Chen made a blackmail deal with violentacrez to take down all creepshots' content. VA acquiesced and creepshots was scrubbed clean. But Chen and Gawker printed his info anyway.

Violentacrez modded some shitty subs. He also actually cleaned them up when it came to illegal materials and content. So in essence he was king of the scumbags, but kept a lot of them in order. He received no compensation for it, nor would his wife necessarilly have known what he was up to. He wasn't the teacher who posted pics of his students. Honestly, THAT teacher probably deserved to be doxxed more than violentacrez did... But alas, Gawker took it upon itself to take some moral high ground. Must've been a slow news day, because in outing VA they created news instead of reporting it. It was a scumbag move that may lead to the worsening condition of the guy's wife.

I like Gawker as much as I like those trash magazines that line the check-out aisles in grocery stores, but that doesn't make me feel any sympathy for the guy. Again, don't make comments or participate in communities that you wouldn't want connected to your real-life unless you're smart about staying anonymous. This guy was not smart.

And King of Scumbags is not a good title to have. Because he was less scummy than the other scumbags doesn't make him a saint.